Solomoriah wrote:Dwarven magic items in my campaign are made by dwarf clerics. It's not only wizards that can make magic items, at least in my campaign.

+1

Religion tends to take a strong role in my western fantasy settings, so more magic items are cleric made in my games than magic-user made.

Much is done this way too. Like I said, culturally a character to breaks from the normal (such as Dwarf who takes on MU) is generally an outcast of their society... but, I don't specifically do any class exclusions based on race. If a player can build the character idea, then I will 'go with it'. In a few cases, I might make a rule tweak - such as the dwarf saves against Wands/Spells, however it has generally worked without any breaks of game balance otherwise.

Back on the topic of gnomes themselves. I don't generally use them. Never actually had a player who actually wanted to play one, and when I think I about it, I have never even been in the presence (as a player or gm or otherwise) of a player whom had a gnome character... except one who had built a retainer/henchman character who was one (and this was a 3.x game). That said, if a player expressed a specific desire to play one, then I would probably allow them about as written, however I might tweak the race a bit to make them more of true dwarf cousin race (bigger and generally a bit more dwarf-like). It would just fit into my campaign concept better... as my dwarves are already a tad less serious than more modern versions, being a bit more 'The Hobbit' or Narnian (cs lewis) in their nature.

Just out of curiosity, what was the inspiration for gnomes as a PC race? My own introduction to gnomes was through literature where they are more like small sprites or faeries than the BF or D&D versions, and I have a hard time seeing them as something besides the six-inch, red-hatted fellows that live in the meadows.

Sir Bedivere wrote:Just out of curiosity, what was the inspiration for gnomes as a PC race? My own introduction to gnomes was through literature where they are more like small sprites or faeries than the BF or D&D versions, and I have a hard time seeing them as something besides the six-inch, red-hatted fellows that live in the meadows.

Exactly! One of my major reasons for not including them in my own games. But, like I said above, if a player really REALLY wanted one (as written in the supplement or various game editions), then I would just add them in as a rare cousin-race of Dwarves... so rare, that the player wanting one would likely be the only one ever encountered unless the party makes a deliberate effort to track down a gnome village.

The gnomes of BFRPG are based on an older tradition, and rooted in stories that predate Hickman & Weis (sp?).

Honestly, has anyone made more of a hash of the game than those two? If any Dragonlance fans read this, I apologize, but seriously, how many races did they turn into pure comic relief? And I blame them for the "modern" halfling race, too, as the kender seem to have been the model for them.

Gnomes are fey, somewhere between dwarves and elves (but closer to the former). Their stories glorify the tricksters and the clever ones, where dwarves sing of hard work and honor and the elves recount epics of glorious discovery and arcane knowledge.

Only a human would be so foolish as to mistake a gnome for a dwarf, and the gnome would be sure to make the human regret his mistake...

Solomoriah wrote:The gnomes of BFRPG are based on an older tradition, and rooted in stories that predate Hickman & Weis (sp?).

Honestly, has anyone made more of a hash of the game than those two? If any Dragonlance fans read this, I apologize, but seriously, how many races did they turn into pure comic relief? And I blame them for the "modern" halfling race, too, as the kender seem to have been the model for them.

Gnomes are fey, somewhere between dwarves and elves (but closer to the former). Their stories glorify the tricksters and the clever ones, where dwarves sing of hard work and honor and the elves recount epics of glorious discovery and arcane knowledge.

Only a human would be so foolish as to mistake a gnome for a dwarf, and the gnome would be sure to make the human regret his mistake...

Agreed. oh and i'll have 4 pics for this supplement done by this weekend.

Not that it's particularly relevant (Gary was not a big Tolkien fan and definitely not a scholar of the Professor's work), but in a few early drafts the high elves in middle earth (ie, Elrond, Cirdan, Galadriel and their ilk) were called gnomes instead.